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April 25, 2003

Nickels

You once could make a phone call with that coin. Then the price escalated to a dime. I don't know what a call costs on a pay phone now. I don't use pay phones anymore. I have a cell phone now, but I prefer just not to call anybody.

I also remember buying 8-ounce cokes for a nickel from a vending machine at "Coke Field," where I played Little Leauge baseball. (There's one for the nostalgia guy. Remember Coke Field, off President Street? BWHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!)

You once could buy a candy bar for a nickel. Those were the days. Of course, comic books were "STILL 12 CENTS" back then, and sales tax was a penny, so I could get a Superman and a Batman comic for 25 cents. Lord, I am old.

A nickel isn't worth much anymore, so I remain unimpressed by the US Mint offering one with a new design. So does the Possum. I can't say that I blame him.

Other than putting a couple of rolls of those things in a gym sock and going after muggers in New York City the way Charles Bronson did in Death Wish, what good are they?

Of course, a top paying job then paid $4-5/hr. I used to have a '67 Mustang fastback, green just like Steve McQueen's in "Bullet". It ran only slightly slower. I had to work two and one-half hours to fill the tank in that car (Minimum wage of $1.25).

Now I'm driving a Ford Focus to and from work. I can fill it up on less than an hour's work now.